Sellier and Bellot?

[emilianoksa]

I recently tried some of their 380 Acp rounds in my Mak.

I normally use Winchester of Remington , but the S&B seemed just as accurate, and were quite a lot cheaper.

One thing I noticed though, was that recoil was much harsher.

I have no way of measuring velocity, but I was wondering if these rounds are actually a lot hotter than I'm used to.

 

[JoeMal]

Not sure about your velocity question, but I use S&B 9mm in my Glock and it performs great IMO. And yes, it's generally cheaper than other ammo types, too. I have not noticed the recoil being different than other matched grain ammo.

 

[rcmodel]

European CIP ammo pressure specs are slightly different then SAAMI specs used in the USA.

In general, I think you will find S&B .380 to be loaded a little hotter then American .380 ball ammo.

Most American .380 ball is loaded as "price point" range ammo.
The European stuff is the real deal, as it is still used by the police & military over there to some extent..

rc

 

[bannockburn]

I have used S&B ammo in .380 and 9mm. Costs a little less than most U.S. ammo brands and performs reliably in all my guns that I use it in. I haven't noticed anything different in terms of functioning or recoil. Good ammo at a decent price. Pretty much the same experience I have with Fiocchi ammo too.

 

[jbauch357]

There were some big lots of 9mm S&B that came through local retailers in the Seattle area. I ended up picking up a couple cases because the price was good, but have found myself pretty disappointed in the ammo. It's considerably lower power than any other 9mm I've shot, even to the point I can only run it through certain pistols of mine because it lacks the punch to operate the slide. Don't know if I got a strange lot, or what happened - but I've been less than impressed with it.

S&B in other calibers has been fine, and it's proven to be the most accurate 7.62x39 I've come across for my AK's.

 

[Nushif]

I went through 1k rounds of S&B 9mm and the stuff cycled my Glock 26 and my 1911 without any problems. Maybe your slide is off?

 

[searcher451]

I'd been itching to try the stuff -- right up until the time a month or so ago when some of it showed up in a local store ... for $27.99 per 50-round box of .380 ACP. The same store was selling American Eagle for $13.99 per box of 50 rounds. And at that price, well, I bought a whole bunch of AE and figure that I can try S&B at some other point ... if, in fact, I ever try any at all.

 

[jbauch357]

I went through 1k rounds of S&B 9mm and the stuff cycled my Glock 26 and my 1911 without any problems. Maybe your slide is off?

Shoots fine in my G26 also, but running my G35 w/ 9mm conversion barrel it lacks the punch to cycle the slide far enough to eject the spent casing. Yes I'm running the stock .40 spring with the conversion barrel, and that is part of it - but no other ammo has given me any problems. Either way, when it doesn't even have the punch of WOLF or WWB it's awfully low power stuff - at least the lot I picked up is...

 

[MICHAEL T]

I have used in 32, 380, 9mm, and 45, never a problem

 

[Dnaltrop]

My old man picked up a Bersa 380 last weekend, it would choke on every shot with the Sellier stuff.

It chewed up boxes of Blazer ammo with 1 feed issue this afternoon.

Maybe an off batch or is there something different between the 2 companies (brass-wise)?

 

[chicharrones]

I've only used the .32 ACP FMJ from Sellier & Bellot. Works well, feels a little hot compared to WWB.

 

[tetralaw]

I bought a couple boxes of S&B and a couple boxes of Monarch to break in my P238. It choked ONCE on the Monarch out of a box of 50 (which I fed first) and 4 times out 50 for the S&B. The pistol is broken in but I haven't gotten a chance to try more S&B. Remington fed fine and I've gone through some Speer GD that worked great. I try to keep an eye out for the Remington 380 at Walmart though. Fairly cheap, accurate, and reliable.

 

[papa_bear]

I find S&B to be pretty dirty. I had a Taurus 605 snub lock up on me shooting a mixture of S&B and Fiocchi. I'm not sure which brand was responsible. More than likely the taurus. lol needless to say i ditched that smoke wagon.

 

[emilianoksa]

Thanks for the comments.

 

[Steve H]

I shoot S & B in my 380 & 45 Both loads seem hotter than U.S. stuff but just as accurate. For the price IMHO it's pretty good stuff and the brass is good for reloading.

 

[welldoya]

I ordered some WWB .380 from an on-line retailer back in March . It has been back-ordered the whole time. I recently got a phone call from them offering to fill the order with S&B .380 for a cheaper price. I told them I would call them back. I've heard of S&B but know nothing about it. From what I read, it seems the S&B is loaded hotter than American ammo. I don't know how much hotter but since Ruger says to not use +P in the LCP, I'm staying away from it, just to be on the safe side. I've also read that it's fairly dirty.

 

[unspellable]

Comparing ammo

I find the variation in how "hot" a given load is does not really correlate to manufacturer or country of origin.

For example, I shoot the 7.65 mm Parabellum. (30 Luger) Winchester's load is substantailly underloaded, Fiocchi's even more so, to the point that it will not reliably cycle the action. I've run them over the chrono, and there is no way Winchester's load will make the claimed 1220 fps, I don't care what kind of barrel or how long it is.

The 32 Special is underloaded by ALL US manufacturers.

I had some MagTech 44 Mags that were pretty sluggish going over the chrono. (They were slower than some of my 44 Special loads.)